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“A major work by an authentic master of alternate history.” – Booklist (Starred Review)

In the tenth year of the Change, the survivors in western Oregon live in a world without technology. Michael Havel’s Bearkillers hold the lands west of Salem in peace and order. To the east, the Clan Mackenzie flourishes under the leadership of Juniper Mackenzie, bard and High Priestess.

Together, they have held Norman Arminger—the warlord of Portland—at bay. With his dark fantasies of a neofeudal empire, Arminger rules much of the Pacific Northwest, spreading fear with his knights, castles, and holy inquisition. Even more dangerous, and perhaps Arminger’s most powerful weapon of all, is his ruthlessly cunning consort, Lady Sandra.

These factions haven’t met in battle because Arminger’s daughter has fallen into Clan Mackenzie’s hands. But Lady Sandra has a plan to retrieve her—even if it means plunging the entire region into open warfare…

“Vivid…Stirling eloquently describes a devastated, mystical world that will appeal to fans of traditional fantasy as well as postapocalyptic SF.” – Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

Rudi Mackenzie—son and heir of the High Priestess Juniper Mackenzie and the Bear Lord Michael Havel—continues his trek across the land that was once the United States of America. His destination: Nantucket, where he hopes to learn the truth behind the Change, which rendered technology across the globe inoperable.

During his travels, Rudi forges ties with new allies in the continuing war against the Prophet. Presiding over his flock, the Prophet teaches his followers that God has punished humanity by destroying technological civilization, and that they must continue to destroy any technology they come across—along with those who dare use it.

But one fanatical officer in the Sword of the Prophet has an even greater mission: to stop Rudi from reaching Nantucket by any means necessary.

Ten years after The Change rendered technology inoperable throughout the world, two brave leaders built two thriving communities in Oregon's Willamette Valley. But now the armies of the totalitarian Protectorate are preparing to wage war over the priceless farmland.

S. M. Stirling presents his first Novel of the Change, the start of the New York Times bestselling postapocalyptic saga set in a world where all technology has been rendered useless.

The Change occurred when an electrical storm centered over the island of Nantucket produced a blinding white flash that rendered all electronic devices and fuels inoperable—and plunged the world into a dark age humanity was unprepared to face...

Michael Pound was flying over Idaho en route to the holiday home of his passengers when the plane’s engines inexplicably died, forcing a less than perfect landing in the wilderness. And as Michael leads his charges to safety, he begins to realize that the engine failure was not an isolated incident.

Juniper McKenzie was singing and playing guitar in a pub when her small Oregon town was thrust into darkness. Now, taking refuge in her family’s cabin with her daughter and a growing circle of friends, Juniper is determined to create a farming community to benefit the survivors of this crisis.

But even as people band together to help one another, others are building armies for conquest...

“Utterly engaging...a page-turner that is certain to win the author legions of new readers and fans.”—George R. R. Martin, author of A Game of Thrones

It's spring on Nantucket and everything is perfectly normal, until a sudden storm blankets the entire island. When the weather clears, the island's inhabitants find that they are no longer in the late twentieth century...but have been transported instead to the Bronze Age! Now they must learn to survive with suspicious, warlike peoples they can barely understand and deal with impending disaster, in the shape of a would-be conqueror from their own time.

Harry Turtledove hailed Island in the Sea of Time as “one of the best time travel/alternative history stories I’ve ever read,” and Jane Lindskold called Against the Tide of Years “another exciting and explosive tale.” Now the adventures of the Nantucket islanders lost in the time of the Bronze Age continues with On the Oceans of Eternity.

Ten years ago, the twentieth century and the Bronze Age were tossed together by a mysterious Event. In the decade since, the Republic of Nantucket has worked hard to create a new future for itself, using the technological know-how retained from modern times to explore and improve conditions for the inhabitants of the past.

Some of these peoples have become allies. Some have turned instead to the renegade Coast Guard officer William Walker. And for ten years, the two sides have tested each other, feinting and parrying, to decide who will be the ones to lead this brave new world into the future.

Now the official battle lines have been drawn. And only one side can emerge the victor…

“STIRLING HAS SURPASSED HIS PREVIOUS WORK,” raved Science Fiction Chronicle of his bestselling novel Island in the Sea of Time, and George R. R. Martin hailed it as “an utterly engaging account of what happens when the isle of Nantucket is whisked back into the Bronze Age.” Now, the adventure continues...

In the years since the Event, the Republic of Nantucket has done its best to recreate the better ideas of the modern age. But the evils of its time resurface in the person of William Walker, renegade Coast Guard officer, who is busy building an empire for himself based on conquest by technology. When Walker reaches Greece and recruits several of their greater kinglets to his cause, the people of Nantucket have no choice. If they are to save the primitive world from being plunged into bloodshed on a twentieth-century scale, they must defeat Walker at his own game: war.

In his Novels of the Change, New York Times bestselling author S.M. Stirling presents “a devastated, mystical world that will appeal to fans of traditional fantasy as well as post-apocalyptic SF.”* Continuing their quest that began in The Golden Princess, two future rulers of a world without technology risk their lives seeking a fabled blade…

Reiko, Empress of Japan, has allied herself with Princess Órlaith, heir to the High Kingdom of Montival, to find the Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi, the Grass-Cutting Sword, a legendary treasure of an ancient dynasty that confers valor and victory to its bearer. Órlaith understands all too well the power it signifies. Her own inherited blade, the Sword of the Lady, was both a burden and a danger to her father, Rudi Mackenzie, as it failed to save the king from being assassinated.

But the fabled sword lies deep with the Valley of Death, and the search will be far from easy. And war is building, in Montival and far beyond.

As Órlaith and Reiko encounter danger and wonder, Órlaith’s mother, Queen Matildha, believes her daughter’s alliance and quest has endangered the entire realm. There are factions both within and without Montival whose loyalty died with the king, and whispers of treachery and war grow ever louder.

And the Malevolence that underlies the enemy will bend all its forces to destroy them.

“[A] vivid portrait of a world gone insane,”* S. M. Stirling’s New York Times bestselling Novels of the Change have depicted a vivid, utterly persuasive, and absorbingly unpredictable postapocalyptic wasteland in which all modern technology has been left in ashes, forcing humankind to rebuild an unknowable new world in the wake of unimaginable—and deliberate—chaos.

Now, in this startling new anthology, S. M. Stirling invites the most fertile minds in science fiction to join him in expanding his rich Emberverse canvas. Here are inventive new perspectives on the cultures, the survivors, and the battles arising across the years and across the globe following the Change.

In his all-new story “Hot Night at the Hopping Toad,” Stirling returns to his own continuing saga of the High Kingdom of Montival. In the accompanying stories are fortune seekers, voyagers, and dangers—from the ruins of Sydney to the Republic of Fargo and Northern Alberta to Venetian and Greek galleys clashing in the Mediterranean.

These new adventures revisit beloved people and places from Stirling’s fantastic universe, introduce us to new ones, and deliver endlessly fascinating challenges to conquer, all while unfolding in a “postapocalyptic landscape that illuminates both the best and the worst of which our species is capable,”** “a world you can see, feel, and touch.” ***

Contributors to The Change: Tales of Downfall and Rebirth IncludeIntroduction: The Change as Setting and Secondary World by S. M. StirlingHot Night at the Hopping Toad by S. M. StirlingRate of Exchange by A. M. DellamonicaTight Spot by Kier SalmonAgainst the Wind by Lauren C. TeffeauThe Demons of Witmer Hall by M. T. ReitenBernie, Lord of the Apes by John Jos. MillerThe Seeker: A Poison in the Blood by Victor MilánGrandpa’s Gift by Terry D. EnglandFortune and Glory by John BirminghamThe Venetian Dialectic by Walter Jon WilliamsThe Soul Remembers Uncouth Noises by John BarnesTopanga and the Chatsworth Lancers by Harry TurtledoveThe Hermit and the Jackalopes by Jane LindskoldThe New Normal by Jody Lynn NyeA Missed Connection by Emily Mah TippettsDeor by Diana Paxson

In the parallel world first introduced in S. M. Stirling's The Sky People, aliens terraformed Mars (and Venus) two hundred million years ago, seeding them with life-forms from Earth. Humans didn't suspect this until the twentieth century, but when the first probes landed on our sister worlds, and found life—intelligent life, at that—things changed with a vengeance. By the year 2000, America, Russia, and the other great powers of Earth are all contending for influence and power amid the newly-discovered inhabitants of our sister planets.

Venus is a primitive world. But on Mars, early hominids evolved civilization earlier than their earthly cousins, driven by the needs of a harsh world growing still harsher as the initial terraforming runs down. Without coal, oil, or uranium, their technology was forced into different paths, and the genetic wizardry of the Crimson Dynasty united a world for more than twenty thousand years.

Now, in a new stand-alone adventure set in this world's 2000 AD, Jeremy Wainman is an archaeologist who has achieved a lifelong dream; to travel to Mars and explore the dead cities of the Deep Beyond, searching for the secrets of the Kings Beneath the Mountain and the fallen empire they ruled.

Teyud Zha-Zhalt is the Martian mercenary the Terrans hire as guide and captain of the landship Intrepid Traveller. A secret links her to the deadly intrigues of Dvor il-Adazar, the City That Is A Mountain, where the last aging descendant of the Tollamune Emperors clings to the remnants of his power...and secrets that may trace their origin to the enigmatic Ancients, the Lords of Creation who reshaped the Solar System in the time of the dinosaurs.

When these three meet, the foundations of reality will be shaken—from the lost city of Rema-Dza to the courts of the Crimson Kings.

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In the mid-1870s, a violent spray of comets hits Earth, decimating cities, erasing shorelines, and changing the world’s climate forever. And just as Earth’s temperature dropped, so was civilization frozen in time. Instead of advancing technologically, humanity had to piece itself back together…

In the twenty-first century, boats still run on steam, messages arrive by telegraph, and the British Empire, with its capital now in Delhi, controls much of the world. The other major world leader is the Czar of All the Russias. Everyone predicts an eventual, deadly showdown. But no one can predict the role that one man, Captain Athelstane King, reluctant spy and hero, will play…

“In this luscious alternative universe, sidekicks quote the Lone Ranger and Right inevitably triumphs with panache. What more could adventure-loving readers ask for?”—Publishers Weekly

Oakland, 1946. Ex-soldier John Rolfe, newly back from the Pacific, has made a fabulous discovery: A portal to an alternate America where Europeans have never set foot—and the only other humans in sight are a band of very curious native americans. Able to return at will to the modern world, Rolfe summons the only people with whom he is willing to share his discovery: his war buddies. And tells them to bring their families...

Los Angeles, twenty-first century. Fish and Game warden Tom Christiansen is involved in the bust of a smuggling operation. What he turns up is something he never anticipated: a photo of authentic Aztec priests decked out in Grateful Dead T-shirts, and a live condor from a gene pool that doesn’t correspond to any known in captivity or the wild. It is a find that will lead him to a woman named Adrienne Rolfe—and a secret that’s been hidden for sixty years...

Marc Vitrac was born in Louisiana in the early 1960's, about the time the first interplanetary probes delivered the news that Mars and Venus were teeming with life—even human life. At that point, the "Space Race" became the central preoccupation of the great powers of the world.

Now, in 1988, Marc has been assigned to Jamestown, the US-Commonwealth base on Venus, near the great Venusian city of Kartahown. Set in a countryside swarming with sabertooths and dinosaurs, Jamestown is home to a small band of American and allied scientist-adventurers.

But there are flies in this ointment – and not only the Venusian dragonflies, with their yard-wide wings. The biologists studying Venus's life are puzzled by the way it not only resembles that on Earth, but is virtually identical to it. The EastBloc has its own base at Cosmograd, in the highlands to the south, and relations are frosty. And attractive young geologist Cynthia Whitlock seems impervious to Marc's Cajun charm.

Meanwhile, at the western end of the continent, Teesa of the Cloud Mountain People leads her tribe in a conflict with the Neanderthal-like beastmen who have seized her folk's sacred caves. Then an EastBloc shuttle crashes nearby, and the beastmen acquire new knowledge... and AK47's.

Jamestown sends its long-range blimp to rescue the downed EastBloc cosmonauts, little suspecting that the answer to the jungle planet's mysteries may lie there, among tribal conflicts and traces of a power that made Earth's vaunted science seem as primitive as the tribesfolk's blowguns. As if that weren't enough, there's an enemy agent on board the airship...

Extravagant and effervescent, The Sky People is alternate-history SF adventure at its best.

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Sarah Connor and her son, John, know the grim tomorrow that awaits their species if the Cyberdyne Corporation gets their Skynet system on-line. Targeted for annihilation because of their future destinies, the Connors have already survived two separate attempts on their lives by advanced Terminator killing machines. But enough T-800 detritus remains from their last life-and-death struggle to enable Cyberdyne to recover. The nightmare is back on track. And the most fearsome and relentless cyborg weapon of all has been dispatched through time to ensure Skynet's victory: a machine so like its human prey that detection is virtually impossible. Considered a dangerous terrorist by the U.S. government and hiding out in Paraguay, Sarah sees another T-800 similar to the cybernetic killer from whom she once narrowly escaped. But while his form and features will eventually be duplicated on many Terminator units, former counterterrorism operative Dieter von Rossback is very much a man, irresistibly drawn to the puzzling, beautiful, deadly serious Sarah Connor and her brilliant teenage son. And once Sarah reveals her dark history and awakens him to the impending possible extermination of all human life, Dieter is drawn to her revolution as well. But the machine masters of the near future have ensured that they will not be thwarted again. A new breed of enforcer, on designed to effortlessly infiltrate the ranks of the enemy, has been firmly entrenched in the uppermost level of Cyberdyne Corporation. With a vengeance-seeking FBI agent on a tight leash and the inexhaustible resources of Cyberdyne to support the hunt for the Connors and their allies, the 1-950 Infiltrator is relentless, programmed to pursue Skynet's goal until all targets are dead. But unlike its technological predecessors, the Infiltrator understands how humans think and feel...and she truly enjoys the blood and the chase. Exploding out of the long shadows cast by Terminator 2: Judgement Day—the cinematic action masterwork that rocked the world-T2: Infiltrator marks a bold new beginning in the stunning apocalyptic epic that has already become a legend.

Jimmy the Hand, boy thief of Krondor, lived in the shadows of the city. The sewers were his byways and a flea-ridden, rat-infested cellar his home. Although gifted beyond his peers, he was still but a nimble street urchin, a pickpocket with potential. Until the day he met Prince Arutha.

Aiding the Prince in his rescue of Princess Anita from imprisonment by Duke Guy du Bas-Tyra, Jimmy runs afoul of Black Guy's secret police. Given the choice of disappearing on his own or in a weighted barrel at the bottom of Krondor's harbor, Jimmy flees the only home he's ever known, venturing south to the relatively safe haven of Land's End. Suspecting that the rural villagers have never encountered a lad with his talent and nose for finding wealth—other people's wealth—he's fairly optimistic about his broadening horizons. But Jimmy is completely unprepared for what greets him.

For Land's End is home to others who tread the crooked path, and more, to a much darker secret: a dangerous presence unknown even to the local thieves and smugglers. And Jimmy's youthful bravado and courage will plunge him deep into the maw of chaos and even—if he isn't careful—death.

Two novels in one large volume, both set in the same universe as The Ship Who Sang:

The City Who Fought: Simeon was bored with running the mining and processing station that made up his "body." If anyone was to survive, somehow he must transform his wargaming hobby into the real thing and become The City Who Fought.

The Ship Avenged: Ten years later, Joat, the eleven year old techno-demon heroine of the first novel is now an adult herself. She and her ship are on the trail of the Kolnari space raiders, trying to stop them before they can spread an infectious, mind-destroying disease among the inhabited stars and destroy civilization throughout the galaxy.

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"Anne McCaffrey and S.M. Stirling have, in The City Who Fought, combined her brain-ships and his military expertise to produce a superior book." ¾Chicago Sun-Times

"McCaffrey and Stirling create vivid heroes and villains in a complex and deadly game." ¾Publishers Weekly

"Intriguing . . . McCaffrey and Stirling have produced a book that expands the boundaries of the series to which it belongs, yet remains consistent with the cycle's overall design. Fans of both writers should be more than pleased." ¾Dragon

"[The Ship Avenged is a] compelling story of resourcefulness and politics in space." ¾ Midwest Book Review

DAVID WEBERIn just a few short years, David Weber has shot to the forefront of science fiction with his top-selling novels of Honor Harrington, the toughest, smartest starship captain in the galaxy. Now two more military SF world-beaters join him in Honor's universe, bringing their own celebrated skills in this homage to Honor.

DAVID DRAKECreator of Hammer's Slammer's

S. M. STIRLINGCreator of the Draka

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New from the New York Times bestselling author of A Taint in the Blood.

Adrian Brézé defied his own dark heritage as a near-purebred Shadowspawn for years, until his power-hungry sister Adrienne kidnapped his human lover Ellen.

Now, Adrienne is dead, and the Council of Shadows is gathering its strength. To stop the Council from launching an apocalypse, Adrian and Ellen must ally with the Brotherhood, a resistance group dedicated to breaking the Council's hold on humankind...by any means necessary.

In the coming confrontation, Adrian must fight not only the members of the Council but also his own nature-and, as he will come to suspect, traitors within the Brotherhood itself...

From S. M. Stirling, the “master of speculative fiction” (Library Journal) and the author of the New York Times bestselling Novels of the Change, comes a new vision, as a man battles the dark forces of the world—including those in his own blood…

Aeons ago, Homo nocturnus ruled the Earth. Possessing extraordinary powers, they were the source of all manner of myths and legends. Though their numbers have been greatly reduced, they exist still—though not as purebreds.

Adrian Brézé is one such being. Wealthy and reclusive, he is more Shadowspawn than human. He rebelled against his own kind, choosing to live as an ordinary man, fighting against his darker nature. But Adrian’s sister is determined to bring back the reign of the Shadowspawn, and now she has struck him at his weakest point by kidnapping his human lover, Ellen.

To save Ellen—and perhaps all of humanity—Adrian must rejoin a battle he swore he would never fight again.

Hunted for years, Sarah and John Connor have waged a grave battle to save humanity from destruction. They and they alone can keep the apocalyptic Judgment Day—the day when sentient machines move to destroy their human creators—from occurring. Aided by Dieter von Rossbach, an ex-counterterrorism operative who will eventually be used as the physical model for the T-101 Terminator units, the Connors have sabotaged the Cyberdyne research facility and stopped a deadly I-950 Infiltrator unit from completing her mission.

But the war is far from over, and now the heroes have been separated.

Severely injured—both mentally and physically—and recuperating under military surveillance, Sarah Connor must face her deepest fears...alone. Meanwhile, von Rossbach, hunted by both the CIA and his former allies, begins a delicate mission to recruit supporters and arms support for the coming battle.

Aided by a beautiful and brilliant MIT student, John Connor starts a desperate campaign across the United States and Central America to prepare an unsuspecting human race for the dark times ahead. For the original I-950 Infiltrator unit left a contingency plan—and, unbeknownst to our heroes, more Infiltrators have initiated their own clandestine operations, including the hunt to terminate the Connors. And this time, despite all their efforts, the brave heroes may not be able to stop the future war between human and machine.

Cyberdyne Corporation is not the only one with plans for the computer network, and hidden far away in a top secret military base, a fledgling Skynet takes its first steps toward sentience...and toward the rise of the machines and the termination of all human life.

Contains Raj Whitehall series opening novels The Forge and The Hammer together in one volume.

Raj Whitehall was a young noble of the Civil Government, the last remnant of galactic civilization on the planet Bellevue, when he came across an ancient but still functioning Fleet Battle Computer named Center. With Center's vast fund of knowledge and strategic calculating abilities, Raj could defeat the barbarians threatening to engulf the Civil Government, and start Bellevue on the road back to the stars. But the Governor, to whom Raj has sworn absolute loyalty, nourishes a paranoid envy and mistrust that grows with every victory. Can even a battle computer of the Galactic Age be enough to counter the fury of Raj's enemies . . . and the treachery of his "friends"?

A young hero overcomes implacable foes to lead a planet fallen into a dark age back to the high point of its lost technological civilization.

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In this omnibus of Marching Through Georgia, Under the Yoke and The Stone Dogs, S.M. Stirling traces the rise of the Domination of the Draka and its long struggle with the United States and the American-led Alliance for Democracy. In this alternate history, the Americans who rejection the Revolution did not scatter to the four winds and Canada; a slight change in the course of events brought them to the new Crown Colony of Drakia instead... starting with the Cape of Good Hope and soon encompassing the whole of the right subcontinent of Southern Africa. Soon burning resentment and limitless ambition spurred the expansion of the people who called themselves the Draka.

There they built the Domination, an empire of inconceivable wealth and savagery, founded on conquest and slavery. It grew until it spanned the African continent, and then in the Great War of the early twentieth century, to include much of Asia as well. In the Eurasian War, Germany and the Soviet Union exhausted each other and the Draka stepped in, leaving the Domination triumphant from the English Channel to the China Sea. Only the United States and its allies stood between the Draka and their dream of an enslaved humanity.

By the 1990s, the Draka commanded the stuff of life itself, mastering biotechnology until they could create new species at will... and transform themselves into the Master Race of their savage dreams. The Alliance for Democracy traveled another path, into the mysteries of the physical universe and the technology based on such knowledge. The final confrontation would settle which was more powerful... or leave the earth a lifeless rock where nothing human remained but bones.

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Together the new Royal Spartan Army and its instructors, the 5th Battalion of Falkenberg's Mercenary Legion, have defeated the initial assault of Grand Senator Bronson's terrorist hordes and their techno-ninja allies. But Bronson's hatred of Sparta and the Legion was as strong as ever; thanks to his limitless wealth and high office, the Helots were able to reform, retreat¾and fight again.

This time they are doing better.

Besieged within, blockaded by the CoDominium without, Sparta grimly fights to preserve its precious experiment in liberty. But just as it seems that the Spartans and their allies might prevail, Bronson has supplied his minions with a battle plan that will bring something worse than a Helot victory: Codename Endlosung-Final Solution.

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Stranger, go and tell the SpartansThat we lie here, obedient to their commands.

Since the late 20th century, the Soviet-American CoDominium had kept the peace, both on Earth and among the stars. But now the CoDominium is dying, and its death-throes will be terrible; already the nations arm for their final battle. With Earth doomed, mankind's sole hope for a future worth having rests on a planet called Sparta, a planet where American idealists have raised once more the banner of a liberty that has been forgotten amid the corruptions and tyrannies of Earth.

The Spartans know that they must be strong to survive; that is why they hired John Christian Falkenberg and his Legion to train them. What the Spartans do not know is that Falkenberg's enemies have become their own¾that Grand Senator Bronson's techno-ninja will follow the Legion to Sparta, and there wreak a terrible vengeance aimed at ending the Spartan experiment before it has fairly begun . . .

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Near-purebred Homo nocturnus Adrian Brézé and his human mate, Ellen, thought they had dealt with his twin sister, Adrienne. In fact, they thought she was dead.

But she survived and now leads a faction of the Shadowspawn—the ancient, shape-shifting, blood-drinking breed who secretly control the world—that wants to leave just enough of the human race alive to satisfy their hunger and serve their needs. She has nothing but hatred and contempt for her brother, who remains on the side of humanity, fighting with the Brotherhood against the Shadowspawn.

To defeat him, she has suborned his mentor—the greatest warrior of the Brotherhood. The man thinks he’s bringing a weapon to the Council of Shadows that will wipe out the Shadowspawn’s leaders. In truth, his actions will make Adrienne demon-goddess of the world...unless Adrian and Ellen can turn him back in time.

In this collection of novellas, four masters of alternate history turn back time, twisting the facts with four excursions into what might have been.

Bestselling author Harry Turtledove imagines a different fate for Socrates (now Sokrates); S. M. Stirling envisions life "in the wilds of a re-barbarized Texas" after asteroids strike the earth in the 19th century; Sidewise winner Mary Gentle contributes a story of love (and pigs) set in the mid-15th century, as European mercenaries prepare to sack a Gothic Carthage; and Nebula nominee Walter Jon Williams pens a tale of Nietzsche intervening in the gunfight at the O.K. Corral.

With the aid of a sentient battle computer from before the collapse of interstellar civilization, Raj Whitehall has come close to reuniting the entire planet of Bellevue. Because of his victories and because of the way he won them, Raj is loved by the people¾and his army would follow him to Hell. Even those closest to him, his band of sworn companions and his wickedly subtle but utterly loyal wife, hold him in awe.

And that's the problem. For though Raj battles only in the name of his emperor and has proven his loyalty again and again, still the half-mad jealousy and fear of Barholm Clerett is about to give Raj no choice but to revolt or face death by torture. Raj Whitehall, Hammer of the Barbarians, Sword of the Spirit of Man, has always been ready to bear any burden, pay any price for final victory.

Now his fate is on him.

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Everybody knows how despicable the alien Fibians are. Allies of the fanatic Mollie rebels against the human Commonwealth, they show no mercy, they have no remorse, and they find human flesh delectable¾at least when served live. Fielding a gigantic starfleet against Earth and its colonies, they march like the giant spiders they resemble through humanity's nightmares, and soon they will march across its devastated worlds.

When the captain of the starship Invincible is incapacitated after a Fibian attack, only Peter Raeder¾former fighter pilot, starship flight engineer, and unorthodox hero of the war against the Mollies¾can be entrusted with command of the ship. His mission: to track down the alien raiders who took out his captain, and then to start hitting the enemy behind the lines.

It's a suicide mission, and Raeder knows it . . . until the fortunes of battle drive him deeper into alien space than he'd ever intended to go, the Invincible too damaged ever to return home. There he discovers that the monstrous Fibians may not be monsters after all . . .

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The hottest teamin military SF is hack in action¾with Book I of a red-hot sequel to The General series!

Planted by interstellar probes on hundreds of human-occupied worlds, the downloaded personalities of Raj Whitehall and the ancient battle computer known as Center work together for planetary unity. Their goal is to prepare those worlds for membership in the Second Federation of Man. But on one planet they do the opposite: on Visager they work to prevent unity. For on Visager a nation-state of vicious militarists is about to start the final war to unite their world-once that is accomplished and their technology has matured they will turn outward, bringing their fatal racist infection to the stars.

John Hosten is the son of a high general of the Chosen. Jeffrey Fair is the son of an admiral of the only nation on Visager that might be capable of halting the onslaught. Through a strange twist of fate they have become as brothers united in their hatred of all that the Chosen hope to do. Only they ¾with the aid of the disembodied voices of their mentors from the stars-stand between eternal tyranny for their world and eternal war for the galaxy.

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Gwendolen Ingolfsson, hurled into a parallel Earth filled with billions of unaltered, antique humans when the molehole experiment she was working on malfunctioned, is very clear where her duty lies. As a member of the Draka, genetically engineered to dominate crude, unmodified humans, her task is to build a molehole device in this universe and establish a bridgehead for the Race to come through. It had been some time since the Draka last had such an opportunity for conquest...As for Detective-Lieutenant Henry Carmaggio, he'd seen plenty of blood, both in Cambodia and in twenty years of police work. But he'd never seen anything like this. Something was loose in his city, something inhuman that walked among us, killing with the easy precision of a leopard in a flock of sheep. And unless he could track it down it would kill and kill again - until the whole world was its hunting ground.

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“[An] epic series,”* the Novels of the Change by New York Times bestselling author S. M. Stirling chronicle a postapocalyptic landscape of medieval and mystical monarchies ruling and warring across a world where mysterious Powers removed advanced technology. A new alliance has been forged between the High Kingdom of Montival and the Empire of Japan, but at the cost of a lost prince...

John Arminger Mackenzie wanted to be a troubadour, but fate made him the son of the king of Montival. His sister Princess Órlaith will deservedly inherit the throne of the High Kings, and it will only pass unto him in the event of her death, leaving the young Prince on an unknown path to discover his true role in the family.

The opportunity to prove his mettle comes when John’s ship, the Tarshish Queen, is caught in the fierce storm raised against the enemies of the alliance. When the clouds recede and the skies clear, John and his crew find themselves on the other side of the Pacific, in the island chains of the Ceram Sea, fighting to survive against vicious pirates and monstrous creatures of the deep, meeting new allies and mysterious enemies of this world and another.

Now, Prince John must seize his birthright and lead his people in battle against the darkest forces man and nature can conjure against them.

ON THIS PLANET,HUMANS HAD FORGOTTENTHEIR HERITAGE¾UNTIL IT CAMELOOKING FOR THEM!

After the collapse of the galactic Web, civilizations crumbled and chaos reigned on thousands of planets. Only on planet Bellevue was there a difference. There, a Fleet Battle Computer named Center had survived from the old civilization. When it found Raj Whitehall, the man who could execute its plan for reviving human civilization, he and Center started Bellevue back on the road leading to the stars; and when Bellevue reached that goal, Center sent copies of itself and Raj to the thousands of worlds still waiting for the light of civilization to dawn.

On Hafardine, civilization had fallen further than most. That men came from the stars was not even a rumor of memory in Adrian Gellert's day. The Empire of Vanbret spread across the lands in a sterile splendor that could only end in another collapse, more ignominious and complete than the first. Adrian Gellert was a philosopher, a Student of the Grove. His greatest desire was a life of contemplation in the service of wisdom . . . until he touched the 'holy relic' that contained the disincarnate minds of Raj Whitehall and Center. On that day, Adrian's search for wisdom would lead him to a life of action, from the law-courts of Vanbret to the pirate cities of the Archipelago and battlefields bloodier than any in the history he'd learned. The prize was the future of humanity.

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Contains Books #5 and #6 The Sword and The Chosen, in the best selling General series.

The Empire of Man has fallen and a new Dark Age is upon the stars. With planets cut off and reduced to subsistence and ignorance, humanity has nearly forgotten its past greatness. But one battle computer has survived the Collapse. He is Center. And Center is determined to find and aid leaders who can return a star-faring republic to the galaxy. The first of these leaders is Raj Whitehall, a man born to be a general, and molded to retake civilization itself from the jaws of barbarism.

The SwordFor five years Raj Whitehall has led his men across the face of the planet Bellevue. With saber and bayonet he has conquered one barbarian nation after another. Now his greatest enemy is his own overlord, Barholm Clerett, who's so paranoid of Raj's victories that he is reduced to only one thought: Raj Whitehall must die.

The ChosenPlanted by interstellar probes on hundreds of human-occupied worlds, the downloaded personalities of Raj Whitehall and the ancient battle computer known as Center work together for planetary unity. On Visager, a nation-state of vicious militarists is about to start the final war that will bring their fatal racist infection to the stars. Now two young men once at odds in war must unite and, with the aid of the disembodied voices of their mentors from the stars, stand against exporting eternal tyranny to the galaxy itself.

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About the Raj Whitehall series:

_[T]old with knowledge of military tactics and hardware, and vividly described action . . . devotees of military SF should enjoy themselves.Ó¾Publishers Weekly

_[A] thoroughly engrossing military sf series . . . superb battle scenes, ingenious weaponry and tactics, homages to Kipling, and many other goodies. High fun.Ó¾Booklist

About David Drake:

_[P]rose as cold and hard s the metal alloy of a tank ã rivals Crane and Remarque ãÓ _Chicago Sun-Times

_Drake couldnt write a bad action scene at gunpoint.Ó _Booklist

The General SeriesThe ForgeS. M. StirlingDavid Drake

The HammerS. M. StirlingDavid Drake

The AnvilS. M. StirlingDavid Drake

The SteelS. M. StirlingDavid Drake

The SwordS. M. StirlingDavid Drake

The ChosenS. M. StirlingDavid Drake

The ReformerS. M. StirlingDavid Drake

The TyrantEric FlintDavid Drake

The HereticTony DanielDavid Drake

The SaviorTony DanielDavid Drake

Omnibus EditionsWarlordDavid DrakeS. M. StirlingContains The Forge and The Hammer

Sequel omnibus edition to Hope Reborn. A young hero overcomes implacable foes to lead a planet fallen into a dark age back to the high point of its lost technological civilization. Contains The Anvil and The Steel in the General series. Series relaunched in The Heretic and continuing in The Savior.

After the collapse of the galactic Web, civilizations crumbled and chaos reigned on thousands of planets. Only on planet Bellevue was there a difference. There, a Fleet Battle Computer named Center had survived from the old civilization. When it found Raj Whitehall, the man who could execute its plan for reviving human civilization, he and Center started Bellevue back on the road leading to the stars.

Now Raj Whitehall has come close to reuniting the entire planet of Bellevue. Because of his victories and because of the way he won them, Raj is loved by the people¾and his army would follow him to Hell. Even those closest to him, his band of sworn companions and his wickedly subtle but utterly loyal wife, hold him in awe.

And that's the problem. For though Raj battles only in the name of his emperor and has proven his loyalty again and again, still the half-mad jealousy and fear of that emperor Clerett is about to give Raj no choice but to revolt or face death and the loss of all he has gained for freedom.

At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management).

About prequel omnibus volume, Hope Reborn:"The various battles and intrigues_all of them very clever and some of them very unexpected_make up the core of these extremely well-written and unabashedly fun books. And really, the action never stops. I highly recommend them to you as theyve come out in a tasty trade format thats very easy to hold and lug around (they are, in other words, backpackable)."¾Amazing Stories

About the Raj Whitehall series:_[T]old with knowledge of military tactics and hardware, and vividly described action. . .devotees of military SF should enjoy themselves.Ó¾Publishers Weekly

_[A] thoroughly engrossing military sf series. . .superb battle scenes, ingenious weaponry and tactics, homages to Kipling, and many other goodies. High fun.Ó¾Booklist

First entry in a new series with three big all new linked novellas from multiple best-sellers S.M. Stirling, John Ringo & Jody Lynn Nye, and Harry Turtledove! After the extinction asteroid DOESN'T strike Earth, the dinosaurs keep evolving¾but so do the mammals. We mammals have achieved human-like shapes, but now it's cold-blooded, magic-using reptiles against the hot-blooded, hot-tempered descendants of cats.

In a heroic, bronze-age world similar to 300, the Mrem Clan of the Claw and its sister warbands are expanding their rough-and-tumble territory, but now they face the Lishkash, masters of a cold-blooded empire of slave armies and magic. It's mammalian courage and adaptation against reptile cunning in a clash of steel and will that will determine which line shall inherit the Earth.

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The Domination of the Draka begins as a British possession in Africa, but soon becomes far more. Absorbing refugees after the American Revolution, and later the Civil War, the Draka become a people bred to rule with an iron fist. They permanently enslave the peoples of Africa, when they do not simply kill them.

But this does not slake the Draka thirst for power. Sweeping across the world, the Draka empire engulfs nation after nation, shackling into servitude all who are not Draka. Europe, Asia, and finally all the Earth and its colonies throughout the Solar System fall before the might of the Draka.

But empires are not faceless monoliths; they are made of individuals, complex humans with their own hopes and dreams. And so one might ask: Who are the Draka What sort of people does the Domination rule The Draka would have many different answers . . .

. . . and this is their story.

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" . . an exciting, evocative [and] horrifying read." ¾Poul Anderson

"A vivid alternate reality . . . truly a tour de force." ¾David Drake

"A potent, unflinching look at a might-have-been world whose evil both contrasts with and reflects that in our own." ¾Publishers Weekly

Peter Raeder became the Commonwealth's first ace pilot in the war against the secessionist Mollies. That battle cost him his hand-and his right to fly the nimble Speeds that had been his first love. Now he's Flight Engineer on the fast carrier Invincible, a crack new ship with a picked crew, ready to fight the Mollies who control the universe's richest anti-hydrogen mines, and the loathsome spider-like alien Fibians who have come to their aid.

There are only a few problems. The pirate raiders who attack the convoy taking him to his new posting, for one. And closer to home, the traitor onboard the Invincible who engineered the grisly death of Peter's predecessor, and who'll kill the entire crew unless Peter can stop him....

At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management).

Contains Books #7 and #8, The Reformer and The Tyrant, in the best selling General series

The Empire of Man has fallen and a new Dark Age is upon the stars. With planets cut off and reduced to subsistence and ignorance, humanity has nearly forgotten its past greatness. But one battle computer has survived the Collapse. He is Center. And Center is determined to find and aid leaders who can return a star-faring republic to the galaxy. The first of these leaders is Raj Whitehall, a man born to be a general, and molded to retake civilization itself from the jaws of barbarism.

The Reformer by S.M. Stirling and David DrakeOn Hafardine, civilization had fallen further than most. That men came from the stars was not even a rumor of memory in Adrian Gellert's day. The Empire of Vanbret spread across the lands in a sterile splendor that could only end in another collapse, more ignominious and complete than the first. Adrian Gellert was a philosopher, a Student of the Grove. His greatest desire was a life of contemplation in the service of wisdom . . . until he touched the 'holy relic' that contained the disincarnate minds of Raj Whitehall and Center. On that day, Adrian's search for wisdom would lead him to a life of action, from the law-courts of Vanbret to the pirate cities of the Archipelago and battlefields bloodier than any in the history he'd learned. The prize was the future of humanity.

The Tyrant by Eric Flint and David DrakeOn the planet Hafardine, civilization must rediscover progress or collapse. Adrian, guided by disembodied electronic mentors from space, has brought gunpowder and steam power to the Kingdom of the Isles to break the stranglehold of the Empire. But he will have to avoid being killed by the suspicious King he serves, by the barbarians he must recruit, and even by his insanely vengeful brother.

At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management).

About the Raj Whitehall/General series:

_[T]old with knowledge of military tactics and hardware, and vividly described action . . . devotees of military SF should enjoy themselves.Ó¾Publishers Weekly

_[A] thoroughly engrossing military sf series . . . superb battle scenes, ingenious weaponry and tactics, homages to Kipling, and many other goodies. High fun.Ó¾Booklist

About David Drake:

_[P]rose as cold and hard s the metal alloy of a tank ã rivals Crane and Remarque ãÓ _Chicago Sun-Times

_Drake couldnt write a bad action scene at gunpoint.Ó _Booklist

The General SeriesThe ForgeS. M. StirlingDavid Drake

The HammerS. M. StirlingDavid Drake

The AnvilS. M. StirlingDavid Drake

The SteelS. M. StirlingDavid Drake

The SwordS. M. StirlingDavid Drake

The ChosenS. M. StirlingDavid Drake

The ReformerS. M. StirlingDavid Drake

The TyrantEric FlintDavid Drake

The HereticTony DanielDavid Drake

The SaviorTony DanielDavid Drake

Omnibus EditionsWarlordDavid DrakeS. M. StirlingContains The Forge and The Hammer

What do you do when the foundation of your universe suddenly vanishes? In a world where magic works--and then suddenly stops working, all bets are off. Those who have magically enhanced their attractiveness must now live by their true appearance. Buildings created by sorcery to hover high in the air suddenly collapse. And Wizards must find more physical means of defense. Original stories by S. M. Stirling, Jody Lynn Nye, Morgan Llywelyn, and more. The adventures of people whose previously magic-dependent worlds are suddenly stripped of all magic.

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ORIGINAL TRADE PAPERBACK. New York Times best-selling authors S.M. Stirling, Mercedes Lackey, Eric Flint, and Jody Lynn Nye return with four novellas. The cat-like Mrem, our heroes, battle the deep reptilian intelligence of humanoid dinosaurs in a Bronze Age world. SEQUEL TO EXILECLAN OF THE CLAW.

Second entry in a series with four linked novellas from multiple best-sellers S.M. Stirling, Mercedes Lackey, Eric Flint and Jody Lynn Nye! After the extinction asteroid does not strike Earth, the dinosaurs keep evolving_but so do the mammals. We mammals have achieved humanlike shapes, but now its cold-blooded, magic-using reptiles against the hot-blooded, hot-tempered descendants of cats.In a heroic, Bronze Age world similar to 300, the Mrem Clans expand their rough-and-tumble territory, but now they face the Lishkash, reptilian masters of a cold-blooded empire of slave armies and magic. Its mammalian courage and adaptation against reptile cunning in a clash of steel and will that determine who shall inherit the Earth.

Exiled SeriesExileClan of the ClawBy Tooth and Claw

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Raj Whitehall was a young noble of the Civil Government, the last remnant of galactic civilization on the planet Bellevue. Possessed of an unparalleled strategic genius, Raj dreamed of leading his people's armies to victory against the barbarians who threatened to engulf them.

Yet it was not exterior enemies who were Raj's greatest challenge, but the Civil Government itself. Its bureaucrats had become corrupt extortionists. The ranks of its armies were filled with barbarian mercenaries ready to turn on the paymasters they despised. Those at the highest levels sank their knives into each other's backs even as the barbarians closed in. And the Governor himself, the man to whom Raj has sworn and given absolute loyalty, nourished a paranoid envy and mistrust that grew with every victory Raj won....

Luckily for Bellevue, Raj had a hidden asset beyond the worship of his troops and his own genius for war. Raj was possessed of¾or possessed by¾a "guardian angel" that guided him inexorably toward the goal of planetary dominion. But could even a battle computer of the Galactic Age be enough to counter the fury of Raj's enemies ... and the treachery of his "friends"

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Peter Raeder was an ace pilot in the Commonwealth's war against the secessionist Mollies until a battle cost him his hand¾and his right to fly the fighter ships he loved. So he became Flight Engineer on the fast carrier Invincible, a crack new ship with a picked crew, ready to fight the fanatical Mollies and their spiderlike alien allies. On his first mission, he faced pirate raiders, attacks by Mollies and a hidden saboteur on board who came close to destroying the Invincible before Raeder unmasked him.

Unfortunately for Raeder, his heroism didn't follow the rulebook, and his reward for saving the ship was a reprimand from an admiral who didn't trust him, and a deskbound assignment¾a fate worse than death for a born spacehound like Raeder. Then a less rulebound Marine General offered Raeder an escape: command of a hidden base deep in Mollie-controlled space from which ships, posing as space pirates, will harry Mollie shipping, like the seagoing privateers of Earth's past. And Raeder finds a dangerous mission preferable to exile to an office cubicle . . . even if his chances of surviving this assignment are very nearly zero.

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. . . Doohan (Scotty on the original TV series Star Trek) and SF veteran Stirling again deliver the exhilarating action that their fans want. . . . Doohan fans will be delighted as the high-spirited crew of the Dauntless set out on their new ship, The Invincible . . . sharply drawn characters and rousing adventure with an energetic story line, offering first-rate escapist entertainment. Publishers Weekly

The collaboration of Star Treks Scottie and top action-sf writer Stirling is a good one. The two have compatible senses of humor. . . . Solid astronautical fare.Booklist

In this terrifying tale of humanity’s desperate stand against a robot uprising, Daniel H. Wilson has written the most entertaining sci-fi thriller in years.

Not far into our future, the dazzling technology that runs our world turns against us. Controlled by a childlike—yet massively powerful—artificial intelligence known as Archos, the global network of machines on which our world has grown dependent suddenly becomes an implacable, deadly foe. At Zero Hour—the moment the robots attack—the human race is almost annihilated, but as its scattered remnants regroup, humanity for the first time unites in a determined effort to fight back. This is the oral history of that conflict, told by an international cast of survivors who experienced this long and bloody confrontation with the machines. Brilliantly conceived and amazingly detailed, Robopocalypse is an action-packed epic with chilling implications about the real technology that surrounds us.

Follow New York Times bestselling author Anne Bishop to a “stunningly original”(Kirkus Reviews) world of magic and political unrest—where the only chance at peace requires a deadly price—in the third Novel of the Others.

The Others freed the blood prophets to protect them from exploitation, but their actions had dire consequences. Now the fragile seers are in greater danger than ever before. In desperate need of answers, Simon Wolfgard, a shape-shifter leader among the Others, has no choice but to enlist blood prophet Meg Corbyn’s help, regardless of the risks she faces by aiding him.

Meg knows each slice of her blade tempts death. But Others and humans alike need answers, and her visions may be Simon’s only hope of ending the conflict.

For the shadows of war are deepening across the Atlantik, and the battle is threatening to break right on Meg and Simon’s doorstep...

In the third Shadow Campaigns novel, Django Wexler continues his “epic fantasy of military might and magical conflict,” (Library Journal) following The Shadow Throne and The Thousand Names.

After the king’s death, war has come to Vordan. The Deputies-General, led by a traitor-seeking zealot, has taken control. Queen Raesinia Orboan is nearly powerless as the government tightens its grip and assassins threaten her life. Unwilling to see the country come under another tyranny, she sets out to turn the tide of history.

As the Sworn Church brings the powers of the continent to war against Vordan, General Janus bet Vhalnich offers a path to victory. Winter Ihernglass, newly promoted to command a regiment, has reunited with her lover and her friends only to face the prospect of leading them into bloody battle.

And the enemy is not just armed with muskets and cannon. Dark priests of an ancient order, wielding forbidden magic, have infiltrated Vordan to stop Janus by whatever means necessary...

“The single most resonant and carefully imagined book of Dick’s career.” —New York Times

It’s America in 1962. Slavery is legal once again. The few Jews who still survive hide under assumed names. In San Francisco, the I Ching is as common as the Yellow Pages. All because some twenty years earlier the United States lost a war—and is now occupied by Nazi Germany and Japan.

This harrowing, Hugo Award–winning novel is the work that established Philip K. Dick as an innovator in science fiction while breaking the barrier between science fiction and the serious novel of ideas. In it Dick offers a haunting vision of history as a nightmare from which it may just be possible to wake.

Allied Intelligence has been warned: A Nazi strategy designed to thwart the D-Day invasion is underway. A Russian émigré turned operative for the British Secret Service, Michael Gallatin has been brought out of retirement as a personal courier. His mission: Parachute into Nazi-occupied France, search out the informant under close watch by the Gestapo, and recover the vital information necessary to subvert the mysterious Nazi plan called Iron Fist.

Fearlessly devoted to the challenge, Gallatin is the one agent uniquely qualified to meet it—he’s a werewolf.

Now, as shifting as the shadows on the dangerous streets of Paris, a master spy is on the scent of unimaginable evil. But with the Normandy landings only hours away, it’s going to be a race against time. For Gallatin, caught in the dark heart of the Third Reich’s twisted death machine, there is only one way to succeed. He must unleash his own internal demons and redefine the meaning of the horror of war.

From the award-winning author of Swan Song and Boy’s Life, this is a “powerful novel [that] fuses WWII espionage thriller and dark fantasy. Richly detailed, intricately plotted, fast-paced historical suspense is enhanced by McCammon’s unique take on the werewolf myth” (Publishers Weekly).

As the acclaimed Patternist science fiction series begins, two immortals meet in the long-ago past—and mankind’s destiny is changed forever. For a thousand years, Doro has cultivated a small African village, carefully breeding its people in search of seemingly unattainable perfection. He survives through the centuries by stealing the bodies of others, a technique he has so thoroughly mastered that nothing on Earth can kill him. But when a gang of New World slavers destroys his village, ruining his grand experiment, Doro is forced to go west and begin anew. He meets Anyanwu, a centuries-old woman whose means of immortality are as kind as his are cruel. She is a shapeshifter, capable of healing with a kiss, and she recognizes Doro as a tyrant. Though many humans have tried to kill them, these two demi-gods have never before met a rival. Now they begin a struggle that will last centuries and permanently alter the nature of humanity.

Hugo and Nebula award–winning author Octavia E. Butler’s sweeping cross-century epic places her “among the best of contemporary SF writers” (Houston Chronicle). This ebook features an illustrated biography of Octavia E. Butler including rare images from the author’s estate.

From the author of the New York Times bestselling Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, comes UNHOLY NIGHT, the next evolution in dark historical revisionism.

They're an iconic part of history's most celebrated birth. But what do we really know about the Three Kings of the Nativity, besides the fact that they followed a star to Bethlehem bearing strange gifts? The Bible has little to say about this enigmatic trio. But leave it to Seth Grahame-Smith, the brilliant and twisted mind behind Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies to take a little mystery, bend a little history, and weave an epic tale.

In Grahame-Smith's telling, the so-called "Three Wise Men" are infamous thieves, led by the dark, murderous Balthazar. After a daring escape from Herod's prison, they stumble upon the famous manger and its newborn king. The last thing Balthazar needs is to be slowed down by young Joseph, Mary and their infant. But when Herod's men begin to slaughter the first born in Judea, he has no choice but to help them escape to Egypt.

It's the beginning of an adventure that will see them fight the last magical creatures of the Old Testament; cross paths with biblical figures like Pontius Pilate and John the Baptist; and finally deliver them to Egypt. It may just be the greatest story never told.

In Taylor Anderson’s acclaimed Destroyermen series, a parallel universe adds an extraordinary layer to the drama of World War II.

Now, Lieutenant Commander Matthew Reddy, the crew of USS Walker, and their allies battle an ever-growing host of enemies across the globe in a desperate battle for freedom …

War has engulfed the—other earth. With every hard-won victory and painful defeat, Matt Reddy and the Allies encounter more friends—and even more diabolical enemies. Even, at last, in the arms of the woman he loves, there is little peace for Reddy. The vast sea, and the scope of the conflict, have trapped him too far away to help on either front, but that doesn’t mean he and Walker can rest.

Cutting short his “honeymoon,” Reddy sails off in pursuit of Hidoiame , a rogue Japanese destroyer that is wreaking havoc in Allied seas. Now that Walker is armed with the latest “new” technology, he hopes his battle-tested four-stacker has an even chance in a straight-up fight against the bigger ship—and he means to take her on.

Elsewhere, the long-awaited invasion of Grik “Indiaa” has begun, and the Human-Lemurian Alliance is pushing back against the twisted might of the Dominion. The diplomatic waters seethe with treachery and a final, terrible plot explodes in the Empire of New Britain Isles. Worse, the savage Grik have also mastered “new” technologies and strategies. Their fleet of monstrous ironclads—and an army two years in the making—are finally massing to strike...

The complete Patternist series—the acclaimed science fiction epic of a world transformed by a secret race of telepaths and their devastating rise to power. In the late seventeenth century, two immortals meet in an African forest. Anyanwu is a healer, a three-hundred-year-old woman who uses her wisdom to help those around her. The other is Doro, a malevolent despot who has mastered the power of stealing the bodies of others when his wears out. Together they will change the world. Over the next three centuries, Doro mounts a colossal selective breeding project, attempting to create a master race of telepaths. He succeeds beyond his wildest dreams, splitting the human race down the middle and establishing a new world order dominated by the most manipulative minds on Earth. In these four novels, award-winning author Octavia E. Butler tells the classic story that began her legendary career: a mythic tale of the transformation of civilization. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Octavia E. Butler including rare images from the author’s estate.

Murder sparks a witchcraft charge and mob fury in this “absorbing historical mystery” set in seventeenth-century America from a New York Times–bestselling author (Publishers Weekly).

It’s 1699 in the coastal settlement of Fount Royal in the Carolinas when Rachel Howarth is sentenced to be hanged as a witch. She’s been accused of murder, deviltry, and blasphemous sexual congress, and the beleaguered, God-fearing colonial village wants her dead. But Matthew Corbett, young clerk to the traveling magistrate summoned to Fount Royal to weigh the accusations, soon finds himself persuaded in favor of the beguiling young widow.

Struck first by her beauty, Matthew believes Rachel to be too dignified, courageous, and intelligent for such obscene charges. The testimony against her is fanatical and unreliable. Clues to the crimes seem too convenient and contrived. A number of her accusers appear to gain by her execution. And, if Rachel is a witch, why hasn’t she used her powers to fly away from the gaol on the wings of a nightbird?

God and Satan are indeed at war. Something really is happening in the newly established settlement—of that Corbett is certain. As his investigation draws him into the darkness of a town gone mad, and deeper into its many secrets, Corbett realizes that time is running out for him, for Rachel, and for the hope that good could possibly win out over evil in Fount Royal.

From the award-winning author of Boy’s Life and Gone South, Speaks the Nightbird is, in the words of Stephen King, “a rarity in popular fiction, a book that manages to be thoughtful as well as entertaining.”

New York Times bestselling author Taylor Anderson’s phenomenal alternate history Destroyermen series continues as a game-changing conspiracy throws the hope of honor, trust, and survival into chaos....

Matt Reddy’s old Asiatic Fleet destroyer USS Walker has been mysteriously transported to an alternate version of earth. Here WWII is no longer raging, and Reddy and his crew have been trying to find a new place for themselves in this strange new world.

Now, along with the felinoid Lemurians and Imperial allies, they fight to keep the reptilian Grik, a race growing in supremacy, from reconquering the Lemurians’ ancestral home on Madagascar. Reddy and his crew are exhausted, far from reinforcements, and wildly outnumbered, so the odds seem greater than ever before. As for the fate of the Americas, Don Hernan and the evil Dominion have gathered to annihilate the forces behind the walls of Fort Defiance as a shadowy power with an agenda all its own rises with chilling resolve.

As the war teeters on a knife-edge, a tipping point may have been reached at last—and cold steel and hot-blooded valor will remain the ultimate weapons.

The first installment in Jasper Fforde’s New York Times bestselling series of Thursday Next novels introduces literary detective Thursday Next and her alternate reality of literature-obsessed England

Fans of Douglas Adams and P. G. Wodehouse will love visiting Jasper Fforde's Great Britain, circa 1985, when time travel is routine, cloning is a reality (dodos are the resurrected pet of choice), and literature is taken very, very seriously: it’s a bibliophile’s dream. England is a virtual police state where an aunt can get lost (literally) in a Wordsworth poem and forging Byronic verse is a punishable offense. All this is business as usual for Thursday Next, renowned Special Operative in literary detection. But when someone begins kidnapping characters from works of literature and plucks Jane Eyre from the pages of Brontë's novel, Thursday is faced with the challenge of her career. Fforde's ingenious fantasy—enhanced by a Web site that re-creates the world of the novel—unites intrigue with English literature in a delightfully witty mix. Thursday’s zany investigations continue with six more bestselling Thursday Next novels, including One of Our Thursdays is Missing and the upcoming The Woman Who Died A Lot. Visit jasperfforde.com.

Perfect for fans of Philippa Gregory and Alison Weir, The Boleyn Reckoning heralds the triumphant conclusion of Laura Andersen’s enthralling trilogy about the Tudor king who never was: the son of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn—Henry IX—who, along with his sisters and those he holds most dear, approaches a dangerous crossroads.

The Tudor royal family has barely survived a disastrous winter. Now English ships and soldiers prepare for the threat of invasion. But William Tudor—known as Henry IX—has his own personal battles to attend to. He still burns for Minuette, his longtime friend, but she has married William’s trusted advisor, Dominic, in secret—an act of betrayal that puts both their lives in danger. Princess Elizabeth, concerned over her brother’s erratic, vengeful behavior, imperils her own life by assembling a shadow court in an effort to protect England. With war on the horizon, Elizabeth must decide where her duty lies: with her brother or her country. Her choice could forever change the course of history.

Praise for The Boleyn Reckoning

“Powerful . . . action, intrigue, star-crossed lovers, and all the drama period fans have come to expect . . . Fans should remain satisfied with the thrilling finale-for-now.”—Booklist

Look for special features inside. Join the Random House Reader’s Circle for author chats and more.

It's 1939. The Nazis have supermen, the British have demons, and one perfectly normal man gets caught in between

Raybould Marsh is a British secret agent in the early days of the Second World War, haunted by something strange he saw on a mission during the Spanish Civil War: a German woman with wires going into her head who looked at him as if she knew him.

When the Nazis start running missions with people who have unnatural abilities—a woman who can turn invisible, a man who can walk through walls, and the woman Marsh saw in Spain who can use her knowledge of the future to twist the present—Marsh is the man who has to face them. He rallies the secret warlocks of Britain to hold the impending invasion at bay. But magic always exacts a price. Eventually, the sacrifice necessary to defeat the enemy will be as terrible as outright loss would be.

Alan Furst meets Alan Moore in the opening of an epic of supernatural alternate history, the tale of a twentieth century like ours and also profoundly different.

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The air pirate Andan Cly is going straight. Well, straighter. Although he's happy to run alcohol guns wherever the money's good, he doesn't think the world needs more sap, or its increasingly ugly side-effects. But becoming legit is easier said than done, and Cly's first legal gig—a supply run for the Seattle Underground—will be paid for by sap money.

New Orleans is not Cly's first pick for a shopping run. He loved the Big Easy once, back when he also loved a beautiful mixed-race prostitute named Josephine Early—but that was a decade ago, and he hasn't looked back since. Jo's still thinking about him, though, or so he learns when he gets a telegram about a peculiar piloting job. It's a chance to complete two lucrative jobs at once, one he can't refuse. He sends his old paramour a note and heads for New Orleans, with no idea of what he's in for—or what she wants him to fly.

But he won't be flying. Not exactly. Hidden at the bottom of Lake Pontchartrain lurks an astonishing war machine, an immense submersible called the Ganymede. This prototype could end the war, if only anyone had the faintest idea of how to operate it.... If only they could sneak it past the Southern forces at the mouth of the Mississippi River... If only it hadn't killed most of the men who'd ever set foot inside it.

But it's those "if onlys" that will decide whether Cly and his crew will end up in the history books, or at the bottom of the ocean.

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In this stunning retelling of World War II, Harry Turtledove has created a blockbuster saga that is thrilling, troubling, and utterly compelling.

It is 1943, the third summer of the new war between the Confederate States of America and the United States, a war that will turn on the deeds of ordinary soldiers, extraordinary heroes, and a colorful cast of spies, politicians, rebels, and everyday citizens.

The CSA president, Jake Featherstone, has greatly miscalculated the North’s resilience. In Ohio, where Confederate victory was once almost certain, Featherstone’s army is crumbling, and reinforcements of uninspired Mexican troops cannot stanch a Northern assault on the heartland.

The tide of war is changing, and victory seems within the grasp of the USA. Still, new fighting flares from Denver to Los Angeles.

Indeed, as the air, ground, and water burn with molten fury, new and demonic tools of killing are unleashed, and secret wars are unfolding. The U.S. government in Philadelphia has proof that the tyrannical Featherstone is murdering African Americans by the tens of thousands in a Texas gulag called Determination. And the leaders of both sides know full well that the world’s next great power will not be the one with the biggest army but the nation that wins the race against nature and science–and smashes open the power of the atom.

In Settling Accounts, Harry Turtledove blends vivid fictional characters with a cast inspired by history, including the Socialist assistant secretary of war Franklin Delano Roosevelt and beleaguered Confederate military commander Nathan Bedford Forrest. In The Grapple, he takes his spellbinding vision to new heights as he captures the heart and soul of a generation born and raised amid unimaginable violence. This is a struggle of conquest and conscience, played out on American soil.